I have been attending a Lutheran
spirituality course at my church led by my pastor. The material used for the
course is a book titled “The spirituality of the cross – The way of the first
evangelicals (Revised Edition)” by Gene Edward Veith, Jr.
The course so far emphasizes the
viewpoint that grace and salvation comes from God, rather than it being the
merit of good works by human individuals. Even the ability to have faith is
deemed to be the work of God, as sinful human beings are unable to believe on
their own accord. As such, no one should claim himself superior to his fellow
human being, but should be humble and grateful for his belief and salvation.
The other point that is tied in is that
of the sacraments. The sacraments seem to be a key feature in Lutheran
spirituality on how God administrate his gifts and saving grace to believers.
So rites like baptism of infants, and the partaking of the holy communion, are
deemed to be essential practice for the salvation and forgiveness of sins.
I have some reservations though about
this idea of sacraments, especially the part about the partaking of holy
communion as being essential for the forgiveness of sins. For one, I don’t like
the idea of the institutional church claiming for itself the key to forgiving
people’s sins. I just have an aversion towards the idea that there needs to be
another layer of ritual for the forgiveness of sins apart from the simple
prayer for God to forgive one’s sins, and that the means of the latter is
inferior to the former. The key bible passage for examination regarding the
function of holy communion seems to be Matthew 26:27, where Jesus took the cup
of wine, and told the disciples to drink from it, saying “This is my blood of
the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins”
I suppose this saying by Jesus is open
to interpretations. On the one hand, it could mean the partaking of the holy
communion, which is representative of the blood of Jesus, is essential to
receive the forgiveness of sins. On the other hand, Jesus could be referring to
his crucifixion as the blood covenant that is poured out for the forgiveness of
sins. The wine in the holy communion is simply symbolic and representative of
the crucifixion, and Jesus intends it to be simply a reminder rather than having
the function for forgiving sins.
I favour the latter interpretation. I
just don’t see why it is that God would need the practice of another ritual to administer
the forgiveness of sins. The death of Jesus on the cross seems adequate to me,
and salvation stemming from this is freely administered upon petition via
prayers.
